St. Paul school knifing report has injured boy's mom upset

The confrontation just outside St. Paul's Ramsey Junior High School ended with a knife wound and a felony assault charge.

According to St. Paul police, a 13-year-old student approached a 14-year-old Tuesday, Feb. 12, and cut him in the forearm with an X-Acto knife outside Ramsey. The 13-year-old was later arrested and charged with second-degree assault.

So Susan Stewart, the mother of the injured eighth-grader, said she was upset when she read the letter the school sent parents a few days later. It said the two boys were playing and "engaged in horseplay that resulted in an injury."

The letter, which was sent home with students Friday and signed by Principal Nancy Flynn, was misleading and unfair to her son, Stewart said.

"I understand they are trying to downplay this, but the extent to which they did that is ridiculous," she said. "They didn't convey what happened, and they made my son out to be part of the problem."

Stewart, who called 911 the afternoon of the incident, also questioned the district's decision not to contact police.

District spokeswoman Toya Stewart Downey said the letter did not go into more detail in an effort to protect the students' privacy. Because this was an isolated incident, she said, the district also wanted to avoid alarming other parents unnecessarily.

"We said what we knew at the time and what we could say based on student privacy laws," Stewart Downey said.

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The letter, which was written by the district's communications office, says the students were playing on school grounds after the end of the school day when the incident occurred.

"We know the students involved in this incident, and we felt the most useful intervention was to notify family members and advise them to seek medical attention," the letter said, adding a parent later made the decision to contact police.

Sgt. Paul Paulos, a police spokesman, said the two students knew each other.

He said the older student said he had texted a friend the day before to warn her the suspect was looking to take her iPod by pretending to like her.

The injured student was taken to a hospital and received stitches, Paulos said.

Stewart said the letter from the school does not capture the seriousness of the incident and seems to ascribe equal blame to victim and suspect.

" 'Mom, I have been telling everyone the truth about what happened, and now the school sent home a letter that makes me look like a liar,' " she said her son told her.

Stewart Downey said that since the letter went out, the district has learned more about the incident, which is under an ongoing district investigation.

She said the district handled communicating with parents appropriately and does not plan to send a follow-up letter at this time.

"If the student body is in no danger, that's the message we want to communicate," Stewart Downey said. "We don't want to incite fear or panic when it's not necessary."

The district is also not second-guessing its decision not to contact police, she said.

Mary Cecconi, the head of the Minnesota nonprofit Parents United for Public Schools, said she understands the parent's concern.

But she said she also sympathizes with schools forced to walk a very fine line in communicating with parents about incidents on campus. They have to be careful to avoid saying too much, violating students' privacy -- and spreading alarm among parents.

"It's a really dicey situation," Cecconi said. "I would not be inclined to make a major statement about it unless I saw it as an escalating trend."

Ken Trump, a national school safety expert, said a common strategy of "downplay, deny, deflect and defend" on school incidents can threaten districts' credibility in the Twitter age.

"I think parents expect transparency, and in today's world of Facebook, Twitter and other social media, there are no secrets in schools," Trump said. "The stories are going to be told. The question is who is going to tell them."